Events from the year 1934 in the United States.
Incumbents
Federal government President: Franklin D. Roosevelt (D-New York) Vice President: John Nance Garner (D-Texas) Chief Justice: Charles Evans Hughes (New York) Speaker of the House of Representatives: Henry Thomas Rainey (D-Illinois) (until August 19) Senate Majority Leader: Joseph Taylor Robinson (D-Arkansas) Congress: 73rd
State governments Governors and lieutenant governors Governors
Lieutenant governors
Events
January January 26 – The Apollo Theater opens in Harlem, New York City. January 27 – Albert Einstein visits the White House. January 30 – Gold Reserve Act: All gold held in the Federal Reserve to be surrendered to the Department of the Treasury; immediately following, President Roosevelt raises the statutory gold price from $20.67 per ounce to $35.
February February 22 – Frank Capra's It Happened One Night, starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert, is released. It becomes a smash hit and the first of Capra's great screen classics. It becomes the first film to win all 5 of the major Academy Awards – Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Screenplay, Best Director, and Best Picture. Gable and Colbert receive their only Oscars for this film.
March March 3 – John Dillinger escapes from jail in Crown Point, Indiana, using a wooden pistol. March 12 – The 6.5 Hansel Valley earthquake affects a sparsely populated area of northern Utah with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), causing light damage and two deaths. March 13 – John Dillinger and his gang rob the First National Bank in Mason City, Iowa. March 16 – The 6th Academy Awards, hosted by Will Rogers, are presented at Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, with Frank Lloyd's Cavalcade winning the Academy Award for Best Picture. It also receives the most awards with three, including Best Director for Lloyd, and is among three films (the others being Frank Borzage's A Farewell to Arms and Frank Capra's Lady for a Day) to each receive the most nominations with four. It is the final awards season until 2021 to accommodate two calendar years. March 22 – The first Masters Tournament in golf opens at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia; Horton Smith will be the winner. March 24 – The Tydings–McDuffie Act comes into effect, establishing the Philippine Commonwealth which allows greater self-government of the Philippines, and scheduling full independence from the U.S. for 1944. Sugar imports are reduced and immigration is limited to 50 Filipino people per year.
April April 1 – Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker kill 2 young highway patrolmen near Grapevine, Texas. April 12 U.S. publication of the novel Tender Is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald The world's highest ever recorded surface wind speed of was recorded on the summit of Mount Washington. April 22 – John Dillinger and two others shoot their way out of an FBI ambush in northern Wisconsin.
May
May 5 – The first Three Stooges short, Woman Haters, is released. May 9 – 1934 West Coast waterfront strike: A general strike is engaged in San Francisco. May 11 – Dust Bowl: A strong 2-day dust storm removes massive amounts of Great Plains topsoil in one of the worst dust storms of the Dust Bowl. May 15 The United States Department of Justice offers a $25,000 reward for John Dillinger. Nantucket Lightship LV-117 sinks after colliding with RMS Olympic. May 16 – Teamsters in Minneapolis begin a strike that lasts until a settlement proposal is accepted on August 21. May 23 A team of police officers, led by Texas Ranger Frank Hamer, ambush bank robbers Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow near their hide-out in Black Lake, Louisiana, killing them both. The "Battle of Toledo" begins during the Auto-Lite strike in Toledo, Ohio, continuing until May 27. May 30 – Everglades National Park is established.
June June 4 – USS Ranger is commissioned. June 6 – New Deal: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Securities Exchange Act into law, establishing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. June 15 – Great Smoky Mountains National Park is established. June 18 – expands the crime of making false statements to remove the requirement of an intent to defraud and expands the coverage to "any matter within the jurisdiction" of the federal government.
July July 1 The world-famous Brookfield Zoo opens in Brookfield, Illinois. The Hays Office censorship code for motion pictures goes into full effect. July 5 – 1934 West Coast waterfront strike: Police in San Francisco open fire on a crowd of striking longshoremen, killing two. July 15 – The American film industry begins to rigorously enforce the Motion Picture Production Code. July 17 – The North Dakota Supreme Court declares Lieutenant Governor Ole H. Olson the legitimate governor and tells William Langer to resign. Langer proceeds to declare North Dakota independent. He revokes the declaration after the Supreme Court justices meet him. July 22 – Outside Chicago's Biograph Theatre, "Public Enemy No. 1" John Dillinger is mortally wounded by FBI agents.
August August 15 – The United States occupation of Haiti ends as the last Marines depart. August 19 – The first All-American Soap Box Derby is held in Dayton, Ohio. August 25 – Anti-union vigilantes seize the town of McGuffey, Ohio, during the Hardin County onion pickers strike.
September September 8 – Off the New Jersey coast, a fire aboard the passenger liner Morro Castle kills 134 people. September 29–October – Folk song collector John Lomax makes the first recordings of "Rock Island Line" at prison farms in Arkansas.
October October 9 – The St. Louis Cardinals defeat the Detroit Tigers, 4 games to 3, to win their third World Series title. October 17 – Harry Pierpont is executed in the electric chair in Columbus, Ohio, for killing Sheriff Jess Sarber while breaking John Dillinger out of jail in Lima, Ohio. October 22 – "Pretty Boy" Floyd is shot and killed by FBI agents near East Liverpool, Ohio. October 31 – Century of Progress closes in Chicago.
November November 2 – Bibb Graves is elected a second consecutive term as the 38th governor of Alabama defeating Edmund H. Dryer. November 5 – Kelayres massacre: An election-eve rally by Democrats in the coal-mining village of Kelayres, Pennsylvania, is fired on as it passes the home of a leading local Republican family, resulting in 5 deaths. November 20–21 – Business Plot: An alleged coup to overthrow President Franklin D. Roosevelt is investigated by the McCormack–Dickstein Committee and is reported by the Philadelphia Record. November 21 – Cole Porter's musical Anything Goes, starring Ethel Merman, premieres in New York City. November 26 – Universal Pictures releases the first film version of Fannie Hurst's novel, Imitation of Life, starring Claudette Colbert and Louise Beavers. It gives Beavers, usually featured in small roles as a maid, her best screen role, and features the largest supporting role played by a black person in a Hollywood film up until then. Its storyline is extremely daring for a 1934 film – part of it revolves around a young mulatto girl rejecting her mother and trying to "pass for white". It is the first Hollywood film to seriously deal with this subject. The 1936 film version of Show Boat, also from Universal, will deal with a similar storyline. November 27 – A running gun battle between FBI agents and bank robber Baby Face Nelson results in the death of one FBI agent and the mortal wounding of special agent Samuel P. Cowley, who was still able to mortally wound Nelson.
December December 28 – An American Airlines aircraft crashes in the Adirondack Mountains. December 29 – Japan renounces the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 and the London Naval Treaty of 1930.
Undated National Archives established. National Union for Social Justice (organization) founded.
Ongoing Lochner era (c. 1897–c. 1937) U.S. occupation of Haiti (1915–1934) Dust Bowl (1930–1936) New Deal (1933–1939)
Sport April 10 - Chicago Black Hawks win their First Stanley Cup by defeating the Detroit Red Wings 3 games to 1. The deciding game was played at Chicago Stadium
Births
January
January 1 George D. Behrakis, Greek-American philanthropist Alan Berg, American Jewish talk show host (d. 1984) January 6 – William Browder, American mathematician (d. 2025) January 7 Jack D. Forbes, Native American writer, scholar, and political activist (d. 2011) Charles Jenkins Sr., American sprinter Joseph Naso, American serial killer January 9 – Bart Starr, American football player and coach (d. 2019) January 10 – Leonard Boswell, American politician (d. 2018) January 16 – Marilyn Horne, American mezzo-soprano January 17 – Cedar Walton, American jazz pianist (d. 2013) January 19 – Phil Rollins, American basketball player (d. 2021) January 20 – Dave Hull, American radio personality (d. 2020) January 21 – Ann Wedgeworth, American actress (d. 2017) January 22 – Bill Bixby, actor and television director (d. 1993) January 23 Lou Antonio, actor, director Carmine Caridi, actor (d. 2019) January 24 Stanley Falkow, microbiologist (d. 2018) Leonard Goldberg, film and television producer (d. 2019) January 26 Huey "Piano" Smith, American rhythm and blues pianist (d. 2023) Bob Uecker, American baseball player, sportscaster, comedian and actor (d. 2025) January 30 – Tammy Grimes, American actress (d. 2016) January 31 – Stephen H. Sachs, American lawyer and politician (d. 2022)
February
February 1 – Bob Shane, American folk singer and guitarist (The Kingston Trio) (d. 2020) February 5 – Hank Aaron, African-American baseball player (d. 2021) February 7 Frank Clarke, American football player, sportscaster (d. 2018) Earl King, American musician (d. 2003) February 9 Bill Fulcher, American football player and coach (d. 2022) John Ziegler Jr., American lawyer, ice hockey executive (d. 2018) February 11 Tina Louise, American actress (Gilligan's Island) Mel Carnahan, American politician (d. 2000) February 12 Anne Osborn Krueger, American economist Bill Russell, African-American basketball player and coach (d. 2022) February 13 – George Segal, American actor (d. 2021) February 14 – Florence Henderson, American actress, singer and television personality (d. 2016) February 15 – William Newsom, American judge (d. 2018) February 16 Harold "Hal" Kalin, American singer (The Kalin Twins) (d. 2005) Herbert "Herbie" Kalin, American singer (The Kalin Twins) (d. 2006) February 18 – Ronald F. Marryott, American admiral (d. 2005) February 19 – Michael Tree, American violist (d. 2018) February 20 – Bobby Unser, American race car driver (d. 2021) February 21 – Rue McClanahan, American actress (d. 2010) February 22 Sparky Anderson, American baseball manager (d. 2010) Van Williams, American actor (d. 2016) February 24 – George Ryan, politician, Governor of Illinois (d. 2025) February 26 – Joe Holup, American basketball player (d. 1998) February 27 N. Scott Momaday, American writer (d. 2024) Ralph Nader, American consumer activist, presidential candidate Van Williams, American actor (d. 2016)
March
March 1 – Joan Hackett, American actress (d. 1983) March 4 John Duffey, American bluegrass musician (d. 1996) Anne Haney, American actress (d. 2001) Barbara McNair, African-American singer, actress (d. 2007) March 5 – Bob Skoronski, American football player (d. 2018) March 6 Milton Diamond, American sexologist and professor of anatomy and reproductive biology (d. 2024) Red Simpson, American country music singer-songwriter (d. 2016) March 7 Gray Morrow, American comic book artist, book illustrator (d. 2001) Willard Scott, American television weather reporter (The Today Show) (d. 2021) March 9 Del Close, American actor, improviser, writer and teacher (d. 1999) Joyce Van Patten, American actress March 11 – Sam Donaldson, American reporter